Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bed n.

[metonymy]

the world of sex; sexual intercourse; thus bedmanship, sexual proficiency.

1723
17501800185019001950
1977
[Rape of the Bride 14: All these agree, with one Accord, / You’re bonny and buxom at Bed and Board].
[US]J.H. Griffin the Devil rides outside 174: I married a woman because we slept well together. [...] . I have everything most men want—money, social prestige, success in my field, a good bed.
‘Andrew Shaw’ Campus Tramp 151: [S]he had thrown herself into the scholarship game with the same zeal she had previously devoted to learning the finer points of [...] bedmanship.
[US] in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 296: We go to college, we major in bed, / Ten to a dorm, not one maidenhead.
[US](con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 67: She took bed for granted, knew more about it, in fact, than he could concoct in his wildest dreams.

In derivatives

beddies (n.) (also beddie)

bed, in the context of a place for sex.

1967
19671968196919701971197219731974
1975
[US]Baker et al. CUSS 78: Beddie Bed.
[UK]‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 186: On balance you’re worth more to me in readies than in beddies.

In compounds

bed athlete (n.) (also bed-bounder, bedroom athlete)

(orig. US) a promiscuous person.

1637
1700180019002000
2002
[[UK]R. Brome Eng. Moor III i: That I may [...] Triumph / Over the lustful stallions of our time: / Bed-bounders, and leap-Ladies].
M. Spillane I, the Jury 120: Mary [...] looked me over from top to bottom. ‘You look like an athlete if I ever saw one.’ ‘What kind?’ I joked. ‘A bed athlete’.
[US]Northwest Rev. 1:1-2:4 16: He proves himself [...] a bedroom athlete equal to Kerouac’s young bohemians.
[US]W. Goldhurst Contours of Experience 184: Elmer Gantry [is the] bedroom athlete, the coldly seductive Don Juan who, by loving all women, rationalizes a murderous inability to love anyone.
Publishers Weekly (US) 3 Apr. 20: Chester Himes, ex-convict, jewel thief, bedroom athlete [...] but above all writer.
P. Davies All Played Out 265: he had, however, the biggest cock in the history of the human race, and when it came to being a bed athlete, was really quite prodigious.
D.O. Dyer, Sr Option Seven 🌐 Look, Tony, I was a pretty good professional football player. I’m a good bed athlete too.
Lois Roden’s Astrodatabank 🌐 The Sun/Pluto con. dictates a person (Sun) of power (Pluto) but also a person who has an obsessive desire for sex. I suspect that the Mars/Venus con. plus the Sun/Pluto con. would make him quite the bedroom athlete, as Pluto also is the ruler of sexuality.
bedbait (n.) [var. on jailbait n. (1)]

(US) an underage sexual partner, who can be of either sex although most often a teenage girl.

Partridge in Words at War, Words at Peace.
bedbug (n.)

see separate entry.

bed-faggot (n.) (also bed-fagot) [faggot n.1 (2)]

a prostitute.

1838
184018501860187018801890
1896
[UK]W. Holloway Dict. of Provincialisms 10/1: Bed-Fagot, A contemptuous name for a bed fellow.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict. 72: BED-FAGOT, a contemptuous term for a bedfellow.
[UK]Sl. Dict.
[Aus]Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 1: Bed-Fagot - A contemptuous term for a woman, generally applied to a prostitute.
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 202: Paillasse, f. A harlot; ‘a bed-fagot’.
bedhop (v.)

to live a sexually promiscuous life; thus bedhopping n. and adj.

1956
19601970198019902000
2001
[US]Westerly 1:3-4 33: [B]ed-hopping. Boring boring boring.
[US]W. Wasserstrom Heiresas of All the Ages 102: [T]he turgid muscularity and female bed-hopping of the twenties and thirties.
[UK]J. Wain Nuncle 169: [I was] in for a bit of rather tired bed-hopping. Largely to convince myself that I wasn't past it. What happened wasn’t always too convincing, but I put that down to the drink.
[US]Film Bulletin 38 12: [B]ed-hopping and wife-swapping.
Alistair Cooke on PBS 21 Dec. [TV] In between the bed-hoppings [etc.].
[US]Time 5 June 61: Lesley Anne Down graduated to playing [...] a bed-hopping socialite.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 51: Never [...] have I encountered bedhopping on the scale it took place at Melton Hall.
posting at Keen Forums 4 Apr. 🌐 Don’t get drunk, don’t bedhop, just get Blotto. Seven days a week!
bed-house (n.) [house n.1 (1)]

1. (US) a ‘short-time’ hotel or assignation house.

1842
185018601870188018901900191019201930
1936
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 9 Apr. n.p.: There are so many bed-houses and places of assignation, where bawds pleasure crowns the labors of the day.
[US]N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 10 Aug. n.p.: Margaret and her ‘cousin Peter’ were on their way to a bed house’ [and] the girl received a V for her trouble [...] Mag has slept with a male friend at an assignation house .
[US]G.G. Foster N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 195: The bloated night-walker [...] who lives by pacing the purlieus of the Points or Water street all night, and enticing drunken negroes, sailors or loafers into two-shilling bed-houses.
[US]J.D. McCabe Lights & Shadows 523: [T]here are [in New York] about 5000 women of ill-fame, known as such, living in 600 houses of prostitution, and frequenting assignation and bed-houses.
[US]Laws of Wisconsin (Statutes) §348.351: [A] house of prostitution, bed house, room, or any other place for any unlawful purpose.

2. (US black) a brothel.

1842
185019001950
a.1987
Whip & Satirist (NY) 23 July n.p.: Her den is a bed house, and is the resort of the most low and vulgar of those dangerous characters who nightly infest this neghborhood.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 June 3/4: He met a fascinating demoiselle [who] invited him to a bed-house kept by a woman named Annie Valentine.
see sense 1.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
[US]Maledicta IX 148: The compilers ought to have looked farther afield and found: […] barrel house, bawdy house, bed house, broad house.
bed-presser (n.)

1. a dull and heavy man; a lazy man.

c.1597
1600170018001900
1906
[UK]Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 II iv: [of Falstaff] This bed-presser [...] this huge hill of flesh.
W. Scott Essay of Drapery 102: I never knew a perpetual bed-presser so much as mentioned.
[UK]Manchester Times 11 Nov. 5/2: Your bear is a highly accomplished bed-presser.
[UK]Manchester Courier 9 Oct. 8/5: Mr Tree was a perfect mountain of man, a huge bed-presser.

2. a whoremonger, a womanizer.

1933
193519401945
1947
[US](con. 1900s) C. McKay Banana Bottom 144: ‘Pudenda!’ he ejaculated [...] ‘Stop your Spanish obscenity, you licentious Panama bed-presser,’ said the minister.
Partridge Shakespeare’s Bawdy 79: bed-presser. A fornicator; a whoremonger or womanizer.

3. a prostitute.

1909
19101920193019401950196019701980
1984
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. & Its Analogues (rev’d edn) 173: bed-sister, bed-presser, bed-piece and bed-fagot: see tart.
[UK]Partridge DSUE (8 edn).
bed-sit (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

bed and breakfast (n.)

see separate entry.

on a bed ride (adj.)

(N.Z. prison) confined to one’s cell through sickness.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 15/1: on a bed ride to be confined to one's cell for medical reasons.
wreck a bed (v.)

(US campus) to have sexual intercourse.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 11: wreck a bed – engage in energetic sex.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

in bed with (adj.) (also in bed together)

(orig. US) allied or associated with, usu. implying nefarious activities.

1969
1970198019902000
2010
[US]R. Starnes Flypaper War 79: ‘[A]ll the oil companies on earth are in bed with each other’.
[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 79: I knew Don Jorge was in bed with Amadeo.
[US]E. Torres After Hours 72: Do you think we would be in bed together if I didn’t have faith in you?
[UK]A. Payne ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ in Minder [TV script] 31: Now that we’re in bed together -- [...] Business-wise, Johnny, business-wise.
[US](con. 1933) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 21: All you Greeks are in bed with Roosevelt.
[US](con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 203: If Tutt’s in bed with Tyrell [...] then you know the two of them have go to hook up to talk about damage control.
[UK]K. Waterhouse Soho 49: I’m half in bed with a guy in LA whose name I daren’t even breathe.
[US](con. 1962) E. Bunker Stark 13: Because of a stupid bust [...] he was in bed with the cops.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 52: The ones in bed with the mob over stolen cars, and guys [...] running interference for the porn business.
put to bed (v.)

1. (US) to trail a subject until they return home and stay there.

1904
191019201930194019501960
1968
[US]N.Y. Times 31 Jan. 27/6–7: The first night he shook off our detectives after they had followed him less than a block, but the next evening we put a ‘tail’ on him, and thus contrived to ‘put him to bed,’ as we call it.
[US]Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
[US]A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 154: Peggy Cavanagh, the Cleveland Waitress, was being awakened in the morning and put to bed at night, as they say in detective circles.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 169/2: Put the clown to bed. To follow a small town cop home before committing crime.
[US]W.R. Burnett Cool Man 97: He intended to wait Willie out, and, in the language of the police on tail, put Willie to bed.

2. to perform a task until it is concluded, esp. used of newspaper editions/columns.

1961
196519701975
1976
[US]W.R. Burnett Conant 61: That night Mike put the column to bed at eleven o’clock.
[US]J.W. Dean III Blind Ambition 144: ‘I’m going to stay on until we put Watergate to bed’.

3. (US und.) to deal with, dispose of.

[US]C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 240: ‘That fugazy mustache will put that bullshit drug charge to bed. It was a setup’.

4. to consume a drink.

[Scot]T. Black Gutted 135: I put the double to bed smartish, let the pint go down slower.
put to bed with a mattock (and tucked up with a spade) (adj.) [SE mattock and spade, tools for digging graves]

dead and buried.

1673
170017501800
1834
[[UK]M. Stevenson Norfolk Drollery 85: For he is still, though he be dead, / But in a manner put to bed].
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK](con. early 19C) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood 179: Long after I’m done for — put to bed with a mattock and tucked up with a spade.
put to bed with a shovel (v.) (also put to bed with a pickaxe and shovel, put to bed with a spade)

to murder; to bury.

1707
17501800185019001950
2000
J. Mapletoft Select Proverbs 110: The greatest King must at last go to Bed with a Shovel or Spade.
J. Smythe Rival Modes 3: George: Dead! How? Hen. Of a several things. Of a Dropsy; of four Apothecaries - and of a Tuesday - Which being over, after I had put her to Bed with a Shovel [...] I felt within me that pleasing Satisfaction which all Husbands feel when their Wives can feel no more.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Derby Mercury 11 Aug. 4/1: If this Corsican Chief, / should come o’er like a Thief [...] And his Army of Slaves, should by Chance ’scape the Waves, / Then we’ll put them to bed witha Spade.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Morn. Chron. (London) 7 Aug. 4/2: They had not lived on good terms lately; he often told her that he would stick her, and be the end of her, that he would put her to bed with a spade.
[Ire]Dublin Morn. Register 13 Aug. 4/3: D—n your old eye, if we thought you had known us last night we would have ‘put you to bed with a spade’.
[US]‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 150: An undeservin person who hadn’t put all ’em are Inglish tu bed with a shovel, when he had 'em in his power.
[UK]R. Barham ‘The Babes in the Wood’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 189: No sooner, however, were they / Put to bed with a spade by the sexton, / Than he carried the darlings away.
[Ire]Waterford Chron. 26 Aug. 1/5: How some of our ould friends [...] would stare at the notion o’ bein’ ‘put to bed with a spade’ [...] instead of havin’ a rowzin’ wake [etc.].
[US] ‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Matsell Vocabulum 124: With shovels they were put to bed / A hundred stretches since!
[US]Wheeling Dly Intelligencer (VA) 9 June 3/3: Ttry your strong Government and a Dictator, of you dare. The former will be broken up [...] and the latter will be put to bed with a spade and pick.
‘Hands off’ [broadside ballad] – Some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay. Put to bed with a spade in the usual way [F&H].
[US]Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 5 Nov. 3/1: When he is buried he is [...] ‘put to bed with a shovel’.
[Aus]‘Lela’ in Maitland Mercury (Aus./NSW) 31 Mar. 2: The arch gonnoff is dusty, you’d better wish. If he rats you are a prate roost, you’ll get put to bed with a shovel.
[Aus]Oakleigh Leader (Nth Brighton, Vic.) 3 Sept. 45/5: The last event which happens to all alike [...] is described as ‘wearing a wooden ovecoat’ and being ‘put to bed with a shovel’.
[Aus]C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 62: Put to Bed with a Spade or Shovel, buried.
[US]Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] I met an old flame [...] that I thought was put to bed with a spade and shovel stretches ago.
[US]A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 30: Your one chance to put them away, so they’ll stay, is to put them to bed with a shovel.
Topeka State Jrnl 13 Sept. 9/4: The old bug was gone — had been taken to the hillside and ‘put to bed with a spade’.
[US]Eve. Star (Washington, DC) 13 Sept. 18/1: The bully they take to the dump on the hill, and put him to bed with a spade.
[US]L. Pound ‘Amer. Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 198: Put to bed with a shovel.
[US](con. 1940–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.